busing

On Wednesday, drivers should be on the lookout for school buses starting their routes for the first official day of classes for Wichita Public Schools. More than 500 buses will be transporting 16,000 students daily.

Safety is on the minds of staff at the First Student bus company. Training center manager Renee Boydo says drivers should allow plenty of distance between themselves and school buses on the road.

"We all have to share the roadway," Boydo says. "We want to make sure these 16,000 kids get to and from school safely."

More than four years after the Wichita school district stopped transporting students across town to racially integrate schools, the district has taken another step toward being freed from a voluntary busing agreement.

The Wichita School Board voted this week to approve a new contract with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The move gives the agency six months to tell the district whether it's released from the busing agreement.